Backbone is great. It legit makes my phone feel like a portable gaming console. It's a really impressive piece of hardware. It's unfortunate that it doesn't work with phone cases, but the experience playing with Backbone is so good that I'm fine with taking my case off. The *one* problem I have is the Backbone+ subscription. Part of the reason I was drawn to Backbone was because it smoothly integrated hardware (the Backbone controller) and software (the Backbone app) for a unified mobile gaming experience. It all comes together really nicely – honestly, I can't praise it enough. Given that, I'm sure it's obvious why I might be upset that the software side of that experience is now locked behind a $50/year subscription. I don't like the fact that I'll have to pay half the price of what is already an expensive controller on an annual basis just to take advantage of all the features of the hardware I paid for. That the capture button and Backbone button will become entirely useless without a subscription is especially upsetting. On top of all that, I'm really not sure what's being offered in the subscription that justifies a $50/year price tag – that's nearly the annual cost of PlayStation Plus, and I get a lot more value out of that subscription than I will out of Backbone+. I'd be less upset if it was $20 or $30/year (though I still don't think the *entire app* should be locked behind a subscription of any kind). Anyway, that's my little rant about Backbone+. Backbone is fantastic outside of that, and it'd be a five-star product if Backbone+ either a) was made significantly cheaper or b) paywalled significantly less functionality. I can't stress this last part enough: the current state of Backbone+ is the ONLY reason why I have not yet ruled out returning my Backbone for a refund.